APUSH Period 5 Review (1844-1877)

Manifest Destiny

  • Americans have a god given right to expand to the pacific

  • Expanded to islands later

    • Further expansion would give more resources

    • More economic opportunities for settlers

    • Refuge

  • Texas

    • Settling since 1820s when it was Mexican

    • By 1830, Texas dominated by Americans, brought their slaves

    • Mexico mandated Roman Catholicism, banned slaves

    • Americans refused, MX shut border

    • Americans ignored, increased tension by 1945

    • Texans revolted, captured MX troop leader and forced him to write a treaty recognizing TX independence

    • MX gov didn’t recognize the treaty, illegitimate

    • Rejected by US since it would lead to war w/ Mexico

  • Oregon Territory

    • Brits and Americans had rights to territory

      • Brits had fur trade, but didn’t have many Brits living there

    • Americans felt they had claim

  • Election of 1844: James Polk

    • Believed in Manifest Destiny

    • Split territory with British at 49th territory

  • Texas annexed to America, → Mexican American War

    • Disputes on border, troops killed 11 Americans, war began

    • Ended with Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

      • Made southern border of US Rio-Grande

      • Granted lots of land = Mexican Cession, including CA and NM

  • Wilmot Proviso: any land from MX war wouldn’t have slavery

    • Struck down

    • Growing tension b/w westward expansion and slavery

  • Gold Rush of 1848

    • Settlers hastened to CA in hopes of gold

    • 14k → 400k population

Expansion of Slavery

  • Southern Position = slavery was a constitutional right

    • Wanted Missouri Compromise line to expand to Pacific

  • Free Soil Position = Northern Dems and Whigs wanted all land gained in West to be free

    • Didn’t want slavery there, but many also didn’t want free blacks there either

    • Abolitionists wanted to ban slavery everywhere

    • Formed Free Soil Party

  • Popular Sovereignty = people living in territory should choose for themselves

California and Mexico

  • Both wanted to join as free states

    • This would throw off balance from MO compromise

  • Henry Clay made Compromise of 1850

    • MX cession would be split into Utah and NM, would decide w/ popular sovereignty

    • CA would be free state

    • Slave Trade outlawed in Washington DC

    • Congress would pass Fugitive Slave Act to get escaped slaves back

      • This made northerners legally responsible to bring slaves back to south

      • Made abolitionists mad, inc tension

Tension Increasing

  • Underground Railroad: slaves given safe passage to north

  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin: exposed brutal backstory of slavery, bestseller

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act

    • Nebraska territory unorganized, but pop growing, applied for statehood

    • Question of slavery

    • Nebraska split into Kansas and Nebraska

    • Slavery decided by popular sovereignty

  • Overturned Missouri Compromise, states were above north line

    • Fighting broke out, Bleeding Kansas

    • Two separate legislatures made

  • Led to birth of Republican Party

    • Mix of Free Soilers, Anti-Slavery Whigs and Democrats

    • Goal was to stop spread of slavery

  • Dred Scott v. Sandford

    • Scott slave in MO, taken to work in Wisconsin

    • Sued that time in free soil = free man

    • Reasons they ruled against Scott:

      • slaves weren’t citizens, they couldn’t sue

      • slaves were property, constitution said property couldn’t be taken

    • If a master could take their slaves anywhere, slavery could exist anywhere

  • John Brown = military abolitionist from Kansas

    • Led followers on raid at Harpers Ferry

    • Seize weapons and ammunition, arm southern slaves

    • Squashed, Brown hanged

    • Southerns thought they understood North’s implications

  • Election of 1860

    • Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas

    • Republicans nominated Lincoln

      • Lincoln explicit that he didn’t oppose South, but wanted it to stop spreading

      • Won without a single southern electoral vote

    • South saw this and seceded from Union, joined into Confederate States of America

    • Shooting started at Fort Sumter, more states joined Confederacy

Civil War

  • Not every state with slavery seceded from the union

  • Lincoln’s goal was to save the union, took a while to create a proclamation to free the slaves

  • He would have alienated slave border states if he did so, believed those were key for victory

  • War wasn’t entirely about slavery, at least the beginning

  • Southern Advantages:

    • Fighting a defensive war

    • Better generals (Lee and Jackson)

  • Northern Advantages:

    • Larger population

    • Robust navy

    • Economic

    • Well-established central government

  • Anaconda Plan: northern use of navy to blockade southern ports, cutting confederacy in half

    • Confederacy relied on help from Britain and France b/c they relied on King Cotton

    • Didn’t work, they found cotton somewhere else

  • Lincoln enlarged purpose from saving union to ending slavery

    • Emancipation Proclamation: all enslaved people in Confederate states freed - DIDN’T FREE BORDER STATES

    • Military strategy to preserve union

  • Effects of Proclamation:

    • Convinced Britain not to send aid to south

    • Empower former slaves to join Union army, symbolic value

    • Battle of Vicksburg victory gained access to Mississippi River

    • After Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln tried to unite by emphasizing all men are created equal

    • Ulysses S. Grant became general of Union army

    • Lee surrendered to Grant, ending war

Reconstruction

  • Should the south be treated with leniency?

  • Lincoln believed South never left Union, proposed minimum test to enter back

    • At least 10% of state’s population must swear oath of allegiance to Union and Constitution

    • Must ratify 13th Amendment, abolished slavery

  • Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth

  • VP Andrew Johnson became president, found himself in fight with Radical Republicans

    • Radicals pushed hard for black rights, desperately wanted to punish south

    • Moderates only concerned about economic gains

  • Radical legislative victories

    • Civil Rights Act of 1866: all blacks are citizens

      • Overturned Dred Scott

      • Johnson vetoed, Congress overturned

    • 14th Amendment: all born or naturalized in US are citizens, no state should deny a citizen equal protection

    • Reconstruction Acts: divided south into 5 zones, subject to military occupation so Southerners wouldn’t break laws

  • Impeachment of Johnson = trial and process of removal

    • Tenure of Office Act: Pres can’t remove cabinet without approval

      • Protects Radical secretary who supported reconstruction

    • Johnson ignored and fired him, → impeachment

    • Congress 1 vote short of removal

  • 15th Amendment: protect voting rights of former slaves

  • Black established black schools and institutions, first black to office

  • South still largely agricultural, sharecropping = basically slavery

  • White Supremacy continued to dominate south, organized secret societies (KKK) to terrorize

  • Black Codes prevented blacks from owning land, established segregation

Reconstruction Amendments

  • 13th: abolished slavery

  • 14th: made all born or naturalized citizens, guaranteed equal protection

  • 15th: protected voting rights of former slaves

1877 Election

  • Republican Hayes, Democrat Tilden

  • Popular vote went to Tilden but 3 states recounted

  • Fight led to Compromise of 1877

  • Hayes president in return for no federal troops in south